Winchester, Virginia
Mowing
When you can next cut it, and the best slot this weekend.
Best weekend slot
Monday 10am–8pm
Verdict: Good
no rain since Saturday, ground firm
Next mow
Tomorrow 8am–midday
Verdict: Good
no rain since Wednesday, ground firm
The next 10 days
Column height is how mowable the day is; the lighter band is the best stretch within it. The line is soil temperature at 6cm. It crosses the seeding threshold inside this forecast.
12.5°C — seeding
Soil at 6cm 26.5°C cooling to 0.0°C
Wednesday 2 September: Not worth it. No — nothing quite good enough today.
Wednesday 2 SeptemberConfident
No — nothing quite good enough today.
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryrain earlier today
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm33mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.67
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature22°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light5 km/h
Limiting factor:none
Thursday 3 September: Good. 8am–midday — no rain since Wednesday, ground firm
Thursday 3 September · 8am–middayConfident
8am–midday — no rain since Wednesday, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Wednesday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm43mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing steadilygrowth potential 0.48
- Poor:Temperature
- Temperature23°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light11 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts when it stops being antisocial
Limiting factor:temperature
Friday 4 September: Good. 8am–10am — no rain since Wednesday, ground firm
Friday 4 September · 8am–10amConfident
8am–10am — no rain since Wednesday, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Wednesday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm43mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing steadilygrowth potential 0.39
- Poor:Temperature
- Temperature22°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light9 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts once the dew has burnt off
Limiting factor:none
Saturday 5 September: Good. 1pm–2pm — heat stress — 28°C
Saturday 5 September · 1pm–2pmConfident
1pm–2pm — heat stress — 28°C
- Marginal:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Wednesday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm37mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.80
- Marginal:Temperature
- Temperature20°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light4 km/h
- Sociable hours
- Fine by the neighbours
Limiting factor:temperature
Sunday 6 September: Good. 11am–8pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
Sunday 6 September · 11am–8pmReasonably confident
11am–8pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryrain earlier today
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm41mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.98
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature14°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light6 km/h
- Sociable hours
- Fine by the neighboursstarts once the dew has burnt off
Limiting factor:none
Monday 7 September: Good. 10am–8pm — no rain since Saturday, ground firm
Monday 7 September · 10am–8pmReasonably confident
10am–8pm — no rain since Saturday, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Saturday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm14mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.95
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature13°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light4 km/h
- Sociable hours
- Fine by the neighboursstarts once the dew has burnt off
Limiting factor:none
Tuesday 8 September: Good. 8am–2pm — no rain since Saturday, ground firm
Tuesday 8 September · 8am–2pmReasonably confident
8am–2pm — no rain since Saturday, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Saturday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm14mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.97
- Marginal:Temperature
- Temperature14°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light6 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts when it stops being antisocial
Limiting factor:none
Wednesday 9 September: Good. 8am–10am — no rain since Saturday, ground firm
Wednesday 9 September · 8am–10amReasonably confident
8am–10am — no rain since Saturday, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Saturday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm14mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing steadilygrowth potential 0.47
- Poor:Temperature
- Temperature21°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light9 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts when it stops being antisocial
Limiting factor:none
Thursday 10 September: Not worth it. No — ground frozen.
Thursday 10 SeptemberLow confidence this far out
No — ground frozen.
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Saturday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm4mm rain over the last week
- Marginal:Growth
- Growing slowlygrowth potential 0.31
- Poor:Temperature
- Heat stress26°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light18 km/h
Limiting factor:growth
Friday 11 September: Not worth it. No — ground frozen.
Friday 11 SeptemberLow confidence this far out
No — ground frozen.
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Saturday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm4mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.92
- Marginal:Temperature
- Temperature15°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light3 km/h
Limiting factor:none
Growth
How fast it is growing, and when it will need cutting again.
0.67Growing strongly
Growth potential, 0 to 1 — the turf-industry measure of how fast grass can grow at today's temperature and day length.
Putting on about 4.0mm a day. A lawn cut today would be ready for another in around 5 days.
Worked out from the PACE Turf growth potential model and day length —how and why.
What this means right now
Warning: Too warm to seed
Too warm to seed — the soil is heat-stressed. Wait for it to cool.
Warning: Heat stress
Thursday 3 September gets hot enough to stress the sward. Mow early or late, and raise the height.
Seeding
Soil temperature at germination depth, and when the window opens.
Soil temperature
81°F27.2°C
at 6cm — germination depth
Cooling over the next 10 days.
Too warm to seed — the soil is heat-stressed. Wait for it to cool.
An independent estimate from air temperature gives 24.2°C, 2.0°C away. Treat the figure as approximate.
Most cool-season lawns in the northern US and Canada are bluegrass, tall fescue, or a mix of the two. We assume that, and use12.5°C as the seeding threshold.
I know what grass I have
The differences are small. Ryegrass is the quickest off the mark; bluegrass is the slowest and wants the warmest soil. Everything else sits between.
| Species | Soil temp | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Perennial ryegrass | 8°C | 5–10 |
| Red / chewings fescue | 8–10°C | 10–14 |
| Tall fescuelikely yours | 10–12°C | 10–14 |
| Browntop bentColonial bentgrass | 10–12°C | 14–21 |
| Smooth-stalked meadow grassKentucky bluegrasslikely yours | 12–13°C | 14–28 |
Feeding
Why timing decides whether a feed does anything at all.
Coming in the app
Grass takes up nitrogen when it is growing. Feed a lawn that has stopped and most of it washes past the roots — which is why timing beats product choice.
Right now this lawn is growing well enough to use a feed.
The app will work out the actual feeding windows for your lawn — along with weed control, scarifying and moss treatment — and tell you when they open without you having to check.
Winchester, Virginia in detail
Soil temperature at 6cm in Winchester, Virginia is currently 27.2°C, and falling about 26.2°C over the next 10 days. That depth matters because it is where grass seed sits and where roots start working, and it lags air temperature by days — which is why a warm afternoon here tells you very little on its own.
Lawns in this area are typically Kentucky bluegrass with tall fescue, the usual mix for cool-season lawns at this latitude. That blend needs the soil to hold above 12.5°C before seed germinates reliably. Too warm to seed — the soil is heat-stressed. Wait for it to cool.
7 of the next 10 days are good mowing days. The best weekend slot right now is Monday 10am–8pm, on the basis that no rain since Saturday, ground firm.
The next recommended window in Winchester opens at 8am on Thursday 3 September, because anything earlier is the hour your neighbours will remember. Underfoot, the ground reads as firm after 33mm rain over the last week.
Forecast from Open-Meteo, refreshed hourly. Soil temperature is modelled, not measured — how that works and where the thresholds come from.